Broken

by Presley Hall

  The thought tumbles through my brain, but I don’t have time to figure out an answer. The moment my grip loosens, he shifts position, and fear joins the desire pulsing through me, adrenaline spiking all over again in my veins.

  Shit. My distraction let him get the advantage. He’s going to hurt me now, or worse, kill me.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid. Never let your guard down in a fight, Jade.

  But instead of attacking me, the man shifts upward, stretching his tall, heavily muscled body over mine. He hovers over me, close enough that I can’t escape, his eyes fixed on mine. The silver one is brighter than ever, and I can see the heat of lust in it, an almost frantic need reflected there.

  And then his eyes widen as he stares down at me, and he sucks in a deep, startled breath.

  What in the hell is happening?

  5

  Brele

  I stare down at the Terran woman. The desire raging through my body momentarily fades as I realize in a flood of understanding what’s happening to me.

  To us.

  I know now why I haven’t been able to stay away from her, why the need pounding through my veins is so difficult to ignore, why I’m seconds away from claiming her. My cock throbs painfully with the blinding need for release, the need to feel her hot, wet body enveloping mine.

  The scent of her arousal hangs thickly in the air. She wants it too. But I’m positive that she doesn’t know why.

  It can’t be possible. My breath hitches as I look down at the beautiful, angry woman underneath me. By all the gods, she’s gorgeous.

  I hold myself away from her, conscious of the rigid length of my cock, so hard that it’s dislodged my loincloth, the tip of it brushing my stomach as it throbs. I don’t want to touch her, because if I do, I won’t be able to stop myself. I almost couldn’t stop myself a moment ago when I smelled her, when I buried my face between her legs for a brief moment.

  This woman is my Irisa.

  My fated mate.

  But that can’t be possible. When I was a boy, I was taken by the Orkun, changed and twisted by our enemies until I barely even resembled a Kalixian any longer. And what I did after they captured me…

  I turned on my own people.

  I deserve every punishment that’s been handed out to me, and more. It doesn’t matter whether I wanted to help the Orkun or not. I did it. So I deserve the aching, lonely nights. I deserve to want, to keep on wanting until I die of it. I deserve to rot out here in the wilderness.

  What I don’t deserve is an Irisa, a privilege that is now denied to the rest of my people because of what I’ve done. There’s no one less deserving of a mate than me.

  But I can’t deny what I’m feeling right now.

  It all makes sense—the pull that I felt toward her the moment I saw her, and how it only grew stronger as the days passed. I didn’t recognize it when she was unconscious. I wouldn’t have believed it even if I had. But the moment she awoke, there was no denying it. And when she started to fight, it hit me as clearly as anything ever has.

  It’s almost as if her smashing her head against mine shocked the realization right into me.

  My soul has recognized hers.

  The ancient words run through my mind, as clear as if the fates themselves were whispering them to me. I want to say them aloud, but I can’t bring myself to. The weight of guilt and shame is too heavy, pushing back even the tide of need that the bond has created.

  But I can still feel the connection humming between us. I can feel the heat of it, the desire… the rightness of it.

  Mine.

  I realize that the woman has stopped fighting, going still beneath me with her eyes wide and fixed on mine. She feels something too, even if she doesn’t understand what it is. She’s frozen in what looks very much like shock, her lips pressed tightly together as she stares at me. I don’t know if it’s the bond that she feels or if she’s only surprised that I haven’t moved to restrain or hurt her in any way.

  She’s so deshing beautiful, every inch of her, and I’m drawn to her so desperately that I feel as if I can’t breathe.

  Her gaze is riveted to mine, her pupils large and dark against the bright green of her irises. Then she reaches up, clutching on to my bare shoulders. For a moment, I think she’s about to pull me down toward her and kiss me.

  But instead, her hips buck upward, one of her legs wrapping around the back of mine as she manages to get enough leverage to push me over.

  I wasn’t wrong in my earlier assessment of her. She’s strong, and clearly a very skilled fighter.

  She rolls me over onto my back, straddling me as she looks down at my face with wild eyes. Her hands are on my chest now, her fingernails digging lightly into my skin as we stare at each other, our positions now reversed. She clenches her jaw, her nostrils flaring as she breathes hard, and I don’t think it’s just from the exertion.

  It’s because she feels the same thing I do.

  She must.

  I don’t move. She’s got the more advantageous position, and although I could easily flip us back over, I want her to understand I’m not a threat.

  Her heart is beating so hard that I can see the steady thrum of her pulse in her throat. She blinks, her brows drawing together as her tongue darts out to lick her lips. They part slightly, and she releases a shuddering breath.

  Then she does exactly what I thought she was going to a moment ago.

  She drops her head and presses her lips against mine.

  Gods, she’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever tasted.

  I react immediately, unable to hold myself still any longer. Her mouth is soft and full, fitting against mine so perfectly that it only cements my certainty that we were made for each other. My arm goes around her back, pulling her closer so that her soft breasts press against my chest, and I groan against her lips.

  As if answering me, she lets out a small, desperate moan. Before I can catch my breath, her hands are suddenly sliding into my hair, her hips moving against me as her lips part, giving me access to more of her mouth. My tongue sweeps inside, tasting her, devouring her as I feel her grind her hips down against my abdomen, burning hot against me.

  Krax, what would it feel like to be inside her?

  My cock lurches at the thought, but I fight down the arousal surging through me.

  I can’t claim her. Not now. Not without her understanding what it means.

  6

  Jade

  I’m… I’m kissing an alien.

  I don’t know quite how it happened. All I know is that when I looked down at him as I straddled his lean hips, something seemed to charge the air between us, and all I could think of was what it would be like to press my lips against his.

  So I did.

  There’s something crazy running through me, an intense feeling that I don’t understand. It’s like a craving—except I’ve never craved anything this strongly in my entire life.

  I want to push it back, to force it down and master it the way I do everything in life, but I can’t seem to manage it. It’s like a wildfire blazing through my body.

  On top of that, I’m still reeling from how quickly everything has changed. The last thing I remember before this is being on Alkul’s ship, crashing through the forest and being flung around the cabin like a rag doll. I truly didn’t believe I was going to survive that.

  And then, against all odds, I woke up… with a handsome, horned alien leaning over me, his bicolored eyes gazing down at me as if I were something he desperately wanted, someone he was thrilled to see. He was happy that I woke up. As if he cared whether I did or not. Why?

  And now I’m kissing him, my hands buried in his thick, tangled hair, and I can’t seem to stop. What’s happening to me? What on Earth—or wherever I am—is going on?

  Maybe I’m going crazy. Maybe I’m actually still asleep and this is just a dream, brought on by some fever or sedative. This isn’t me.

  This can’t be real.

  The alien grasps my wa
ist, rolling me onto my back on the hard wooden floor, a groan vibrating against my lips as he keeps kissing me, his fingers pressing into my skin. He’s all hard muscle and taut skin, and he smells like a forest, like wood and green things, and under that is a scent of masculine sweat that sends a shiver of desire through my body.

  He nips at my lower lip softly, and then starts to move down my body. As his lips brush over my throat, I’m suddenly very aware all over again that I’m only in my bra and panties. He notices it too, one hand coming up to grasp my breast through the cotton of my bra, squeezing lightly as he groans again. His breath is hot against my neck, and another tremor runs down my spine.

  My skin feels sensitive and hot, aching with a need that I’ve never felt before. I like sex as much as the next girl, but this isn’t just sexual desire. This is something else, something so all-encompassing that I want to beg for more. The urge is so intense that I press my lips tightly together so I won’t accidentally blurt out something I shouldn’t.

  His mouth brushes against the mound of my right breast, his hips moving against mine, and I feel the hardness of him against my stomach, smooth and hot against my flesh. A whimper slips past my lips, one that I can’t help. My breathing turns to gasps as his attention moves from my breasts down my stomach, his tongue trailing a warm line over the flat, muscular plane of my abdomen down to my hipbones.

  He’s lying between my legs now. It would be nothing for me to wrap my own legs around his head and try to choke him out again so I can escape. But I don’t make a single move to do it. I just lie still, my world narrowing down to the ache between my legs, the heat emanating up through my body, and the desperate curiosity as to what he’s going to do next.

  Surely he’s not…?

  Holy shit. He is.

  He growls, a deep sound in his throat as his lips press against the damp cotton of my panties just below the waistband, and he breathes in deeply again.

  His fingers hook around the fabric of the crotch, pulling it to the side and exposing my heated, swollen pussy to the cool air of the cabin. And then his tongue presses between my legs, sliding over my folds in a long lick that ends in a swirling motion over my clit.

  “Fuck!” I gasp out, my back arching so hard that I almost come up off the floor.

  I can’t remember the last time a guy went down on me, certainly not with any skill. But the feeling of this man’s soft, warm tongue sliding between my legs sends a bolt of pure pleasure through me, and a moan spills from my lips.

  He growls again as he tastes me, an almost animalistic sound. I can hear the pleasure in it, the need. His other hand grasps my thigh, pushing it a bit wider as he presses his mouth against me in earnest.

  Oh fuck.

  I never knew it could feel this good.

  I never knew anything could feel this good.

  This is everything I’ve ever fantasized about dialed up to eleven. All thoughts of running away or fighting back fly right out the window as the alien begins to devour me, his tongue sliding up and down in long, slow licks.

  All of his focus is on me, his tongue drawing patterns against my skin, trailing up and down again as he finds the spots that make me moan, the ones that make me shriek in small gasps, and the ones that send my hips arching against the hand he’s using to hold me in place.

  I’m writhing against his face as he finally does what I want most and swirls his tongue around my clit, sucking it into his mouth as I moan and pant.

  He groans as if I’m the most delicious thing he’s ever tasted, as if he doesn’t want to stop.

  And he doesn’t stop. He keeps going as my inner thighs start to tremble.

  An orgasm is building inside me, the knot of desire and need in my stomach slowly unfurling as he presses his tongue against me. And then I feel his fingers, two of them, sliding into me.

  I’m hovering on the precipice, my whole body tense and taut. As his fingers move faster, pressing into a spot that seems to send electric shocks down my spine and through every nerve in my body, I finally fall over the edge. Waves of pleasure race through me, one after the other until I’m gasping.

  For a moment, I feel dizzy. My head swims, and I cry out with indescribable pleasure as I come hard on his face. I forget everything as my hips grind against his mouth, and I realize I’m gripping his hair, my fingers tangled in it as I hold him against me.

  His lips and tongue and fingers don’t stop, carrying me through the orgasm until finally every inch of me is so sensitive that I’m pushing him away instead of pulling him closer.

  “Oh my god,” I pant, staring up at the ceiling as my vision goes a little blurry. “That was…”

  Insane.

  There’s not another word that could describe what just happened.

  I kissed an alien. A man I don’t even know. And then I let him go down on me.

  This is nuts. I blink slowly, tilting my head down to stare at him. This is crazy. There’s an alien between my legs, and I just let him… oh my god, I’m losing my mind.

  I have to get out of here. My head is spinning, both from pleasure and disbelief. I can’t believe that actually happened, that the gorgeous, muscled alien between my thighs just touched me more intimately than any human has in a long time… and that I let him.

  He’s stopped moving and has withdrawn his fingers. He’s looking up at me now with something intense burning in his strange blue and gray eyes.

  Taking advantage of his distraction, I sit up and shove him backward, kicking at his chest as I scramble out from underneath him and bolt for the door. I have to get as far away from him as possible.

  I have to get off this fucking planet.

  Now.

  7

  Brele

  I stare after the woman as she runs outside, frozen in place with shock.

  Her taste is still on my lips, and I’m dazed from it, from the feel and scent of her, from the need throbbing through my body and making my cock so hard that it aches painfully.

  I’ve never tasted anything so sweet, or heard any sound as perfect as the moans and whimpers and cries she made as I slid my tongue over her, devouring her. I want to hear them again. I want to do all of that again, and then I want to slide into her, claiming her as my own.

  The sound of the door slamming behind her jolts me out of my shock, and I scramble to my feet.

  Krax. I have to go after her.

  She’s clearly strong and fierce, no doubt a warrior woman in her own right, on her own planet. But the wilderness beyond my home is dangerous, even more so because of how far out we are from civilization. The bond burns inside of me, driving me to protect her—whether she needs me to or not.

  It doesn’t matter how strong she is. She doesn’t know what could be out there waiting for her, or how to fight it. And she has no weapons, only her own two hands.

  She was beating you for a moment, just with those, I think ruefully and grin.

  More than my desire for her, I like her. I like her spirit, her willingness to fight. She’s the kind of woman I would have wanted once, long ago, when I still hoped for a mate.

  When I was truly a Kalixian. When I still deserved an Irisa, and all the pleasures of bed and home and family that come with the mate bond.

  Pushing those dark thoughts from my head, I grab my weapons and strap them on, then bolt out of the door after her with my spear in hand.

  I learned the hard way how dangerous this planet can be outside the safety of Jocia, long ago when I was first banished. A dravveik attacked me and nearly killed me. It would have, if it hadn’t been young and smaller than most.

  I had only a long knife to protect myself with back then. It’s the first weapon given to young Kalixian males. As a symbol of my banishment, it was all I was allowed to take with me when I was cast out of Jocia. It was a representation of everything I’d gained since my youth, everything I’d learned, everything I’d been given. My identity, stripped away down to a simple knife.

  Only the sheer wil
l to live and a bit of luck got me out of that attack with my life. And I lost an eye to the beast.

  I can’t risk the same thing happening to her.

  She hasn’t made it far. I quickly get within sighting distance of her, my long strides eating up the ground between us. I call after her, begging her to stop, to listen, to come back with me to the safety of my house, but of course she doesn’t understand me. She doesn’t speak Kalixian, and she clearly doesn’t have a multi-language implant embedded in her brain.

  She shouts something back at me, waving her hands, but I can’t understand her either. I, of course, had a multi-language translator chip implanted, as all Kalixians in the capital city do. But in order to undo what the Orkun did to me, I couldn’t salvage it. It was either tear everything they’d done to me out of my head or keep my translator.

  That was an easy choice to make.

  Out here, it’s not as if I’ve had many people to talk to anyway. Certainly not someone who wouldn’t understand me, or I them. Until this woman came along.

  Now I wish desperately that I still had it.

  “You can’t be out here alone!” I shout after her, still in pursuit as we crash through the trees. We’re nearing a swampy area of the forest, one thick with vines and bushes and fallen trees. The ground is wet and soft, and I want to stop her before she runs right into the bog. If the heavy mud doesn’t suck her down, there are all kinds of bacteria and creeping, slithering, or swimming creatures that could harm her.

  She comprehends my point, if not my words, glaring at me over her shoulder as she keeps running and shouts something back at me. If I had to guess, it would be something along the lines of, I can take care of myself.

  “Maybe you could back where you come from, but you can’t here!” I yell, frustration overwhelming me. She can’t understand me, she won’t listen, and even if she could understand… she probably still wouldn’t listen. To her, I’m just a potential enemy.